Category Archives: Prolapsed Vent

Today John mucked out the coop. We do the deep litter method of chicken keeping. That means that – typically – once or twice a year it will be mucked out and started all over again with fresh pine shavings. Throughout the course of the year additional fresh pine shavings are added to the top, when things need “freshened up” so to speak.

Aside from finding a WHOLE BUNCH of chicken poo, John also found 10 – yes, I said TEN – eggs – all of varying age. Elijah, my inquisitive nephew, decided to squeeze one of the eggs to see what would happen! Yeah – rotten egg is not such a pleasant experience when you end up wearing it.

See that white egg there behind John?

This Welsummer was pretty put out with John as he worked. She’d come in – squak at him – supervise his work for a while, leave for a while, then come back and repeat!

BB – along with all of the other girls – was trying to figure out what the heck we were doing in her coop!

You see – we do have a plan! (Of course!) John reattached the door that was taken off last fall – so that we can divide the coop once again. The big girls will sleep on the side that the nest boxes are on…

and the chicks that we’ll be getting this spring will hang out on the other side of the coop!

We are looking at adding chicks from the following breeds this year:

Cuckoo Maran

Ameracauna

Sussex

Minorca

Delaware

Barnevelder

Andalusian

I don’t know which of these we’ll actually be able to get our hands on – but I’ve started the process of seeking them out.

Tonight, the big girls were a little confused about all that was going on tonight when they were going to bed at first – but eventually settled down for the night just as they always do.

On a sad note. Angel, our California White with the prolapsed vent, has not responded to therapy. Even worse, her prolapsed vent seems to have gone necrotic – I believe she’s been pecking HERSELF. We had her in isolation – away from the other girls – so that they would not harm her – but apparently that wasn’t good enough. So we’ve decided to cull her from the flock. It seems the only humane thing to do.

Like this:

This morning, as I was making William’s breakfast I happened to catch a flash of movement out of the corner of my eye – and lo and behold! What did I see? An escape artist!Every morning, for the last several mornings, one of the California White’s has been managing to get out of the chicken yard and have at it without competition with the cat’s food. I can understand the motivation – but honestly, it can be a bit of a pain in the butt. Well, and then there’s the fact that solo chicken running around the yard seems – well – more vulnerable.

So – I made oatmeal for the girls, and the minute I took it in to them – escapee wanted back in. Go figure! Yeah, I wasn’t surprised, either.

So guess what! We had a GORGEOUS day today. It got up to nearly 60 degrees! Woo Hoo! SPRING WILL COME AGAIN! HALLELUJAH!

This is what Spring should look like:And this…and this…

and of course, this…

By the time the early afternoon rolled around, I decided it was time to let the girls out. Boy oh boy, where they happy to be out and about!

Caleb, hanging with the girls.

Pepper, running with her ball on a rope. She loves that toy!

And here’s Angel. Looks fine – but well, seemed a little more skittish than normal today.

I’d been keeping an eye on the California Whites because for the last three mornings there have been some VERY large white eggs in the nest boxes – and they’ve had quite a bit of blood on them. Hmmm… I decided I had to get to the bottom of this!

As it happened, I noticed that Angel had a BLACK butt. Yes, my chicken pictured above – like she looked like someone had held her over an open flame and singed her fanny. So I determined that I needed to catch her and get a closer look.

Yeah. Right. Not so much.

Thankfully, not much time went by and Jessica arrived home from school. Have I mentioned that my daughter is chicken wrangle extraordinaire? If not – let me just say it here and now: the girl has a gift!

So Jess and I set out to corner and catch the not so interested in being handled AT ALL chicken. Amusing.

So – we finally did it! We caught Angel and I did a little exam. Once I got a closer look it seemed as if her butt were just CAKED – like seriously – with poo, mud, dust, and some blood. Yuck. I realized that this was going to take a concerted effort, so Jess and I worked as a team. She held Angel, I found a large bucket and filled it with nice warm water, and then we set to… yep, bathing the chicken.

It took about 20 minutes, but once I had her butt all cleaned up – it didn’t take long for us to ascertain that something was more than just passingly not okay.

Warning: the pictures below are graphic! Like gross and ickey. Okay?

This, unfortunately, is a prolapsed vent. Darn it!

Poor Angel!

Anyway, eventually got her inito a second bath to make certain she was VERY clean (don’t want any infection to set in!), I went ahead and attempted to gently push the vent back into it’s appointed place! It stayed for about 10 minues, but then re-prolapsed. Darn it. I did get the Preparation H applied – and I’m hoping it helps her!

So – armed with excellent advice from older/wiser cihcken keepers, we’re keeping Angel separated from the rest of the flock, we have her in a location where she can’t hear the rest of life going on around her. It should be restful for her.

And we’ve also draped the crate she’s in with blankets – to help keep her warm.